Tuesday, 17 January 2017

New motor sales running out of gas

New motor vehicle sales ticked up by 0.3 per cent to 97,305 in December in seasonally adjusted terms, but it looks as though the trend is weakening now after a solid year.

It was a record calendar year for new units sold at just shy of 1.18 million, but it looks as though the peak could now be in the rear view mirror.

The boom was mainly driven by New South Wales, which had notched both a record month in December, and a record year calendar too.

Offsetting this, new vehicle sales have been decelerating in the resources states.

Sports Utilities (SUVs) accounted for a never-before-seen 440,000 new sales in 2016, some 37 per cent of the market.

Indeed, luxury car sales accounted for a record share of the market in 2016 too, strongly suggesting that equity from appreciating homes in Sydney and Melbourne has been tapped up.

Sadly in the future the cars driven by Aussies will be imports, with Holden the latest manufacturer to announce its closure date for production in Australia.

Production volumes nosedived to their lowest level in years in December at a measly 9,334, down by a thunderous 46 per cent from December 2011, and the annual total will inevitably continue to drop much further from here.